{"id":73669,"date":"2026-06-09T11:57:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T09:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/?p=73669"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:34:40","slug":"ende-und-anfang-in-der-kartause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/en\/berichte\/2026\/06\/ende-und-anfang-in-der-kartause","title":{"rendered":"End and beginning in the Charterhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00abLast escort\u00bb towards the Charterhouse. Photo: Pia Schwab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seems a strange topic for someone who is starting out. But the hyphen in \u00abauf-h\u00f6ren\u00bb already indicates that it is not simply a matter of ending, of calling it a day. Reto Bieri, clarinettist, conductor, lecturer in chamber music in Munich, long-time director of the Davos Festival and passionate programmer, is conducting the Whitsun Concerts at Ittingen Charterhouse for the first time. Heinz Holliger and Andr\u00e1s Schiff began this tradition exactly thirty years ago; after twenty editions, Graziella Contratto, Oliver Schnyder, Maurice Steger, Nicolas Altstaedt, Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout took over successively.<\/p>\n

How does hearing come into cessation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And now Reto Bieri \u00abstops\u00bb. In the program booklet, he explains how he understands this: \u00abHardly any other word says \u00bbno\u00ab so decisively and at the same time offers an opening. One says: \u00bbStop it\u00ab and means standstill. But there is something else hidden inside the word: a listening ... \u00bb So to stop is like listening. This interpretation makes sense to someone who is interested in music. But is it correct? Kluge's Etymological Dictionary confirms that \u00abaufh\u00f6ren\u00bb was synonymous with \u00abh\u00f6ren\u00bb in the Middle Ages and infers: \"When someone focuses their attention on something, they simultaneously cease their activity.\" Ceasing as being ready for the new that is about to come.<\/p>\n

Reto Bieri explains this choice with the first impression the Charterhouse made on him: \u00abYou come through this portal and find yourself in a new, closed world. The most open space is heaven. That was also the case for the Carthusians, who withdrew behind these walls and created a paradise.\u00bb The entire festival program opens up from here.<\/p>\n

Radical leaving behind<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It begins with the extreme form of cessation, death. To kick things off on Friday evening, there is a three-part \u00abLast Convoy\u00bb that stages precisely this arrival, farewell and resurrection. A few hundred meters away from the Charterhouse, a detachment of the Weinfelden Music Society forms up, then marches off slowly, playing the funeral march \u00abDear Mother\u00bb. Then standstill, silence. It continues, same music, same slowness. Silence again. At the very back of the funeral procession of festival visitors, unrest spreads. Someone is upset that the loudspeaker, which is carried on a cart, is in the wrong place, because you can't hear anything. There is nothing to hear, it gradually becomes clear. There is slow walking to the funeral march - to the half! - and standing still. Not so easy to bear. The third time I stand still, I realize that my eyes are closing and I surrender to the situation. Bieri will later confirm \u00abthat you almost can't stand it, these repetitions, this stepping on the spot\u00bb. And he will tell me what a unique experience it was for the music students involved to march along with players who have a completely different musical background. How the drum major had to explain to them how they should stand in line, heels together, feet at a 45-degree angle. Bieri has also joined the clarinet section and pays his respects to his dear mother. The march has to be played five times before they reach the Charterhouse, and the mint along the way begins to smell as they walk slowly.<\/p>\n

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Vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis in the monastery garden. Photo: Barbara Camenzind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Corpse feast, acted and completely true<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the baroque garden, Vox Clamantis has positioned itself around the round water basin and greets those arriving with Gregorian chants, including the Pentecost sequence. In the subsequent concert in the Remise, this Estonian vocal ensemble sings with its somnambulistic homogeneity The Deer's Cry<\/em> by Arvo P\u00e4rt, the composer to whom it is very close and who almost quit, only to find a new voice years later. Finally, Henryk G\u00f3recki's Little requiem for a polka<\/em>, here, too, repetitions, stepping on the spot and a sudden burst of nostalgic, exaggerated exuberance. Actor J\u00fcrg Kienberger, who has already given a somewhat disparate speech outside as the \u00abpriest\u00bb between quotes from Gotthelf and automatic telephone announcements, also provides amusement. There, these tragicomic-parodic intermezzi alienated me somewhat; on stage, I like them. It's good to laugh between this concentrated music. When asked whether this \u00abtheater\u00bb does not meet with opposition, Bieri will tell of a priest who wrote to him angrily. In the meantime, it has become a very stimulating exchange.<\/p>\n

The evening concludes, as befits a funeral service, with the funeral meal. Everyone is seated in the Charterhouse restaurant: soup, people begin to chat hesitantly, main course, Mark Padmore accompanied by Anthony Romaniuk sings Schubert's Farewell to the earth<\/em>, Dessert, ice-skating waltz. The festival musicians stand between the tables where there is space and play, the guests sing-hum-mumble along in several repetitions until the sadness has melted away and everyone is sure that something will begin again after the end. \u00ab... the end is the beginning from the other side\u00bb, Karl Valentin is quoted in the festival program.<\/p>\n